DuPont adds two new grades of long-chain polyamide to hose and tubing offering

We can now offer the hose and tube market two new additions, featured in our portfolio of engineering polymers. Both Zytel® LC 7000 and Zytel® RS LC 4000 maintain outstanding impact strength at lower temperatures and offer better aging performance than PA11 and PA12.

The new polymers offer a higher amount of flexibility with minimal use of plasticizer for use in low-pressure hydraulic hose and low-pressure pneumatic/hydraulic tubing. Over time, the change in the material’s properties is negligible, even at high temperatures (up to 130°C), primarily because they only use 5 to 7 percent plasticizer, compared to the incumbent materials that typically use anything between 25 to 30 percent.

Both grades offer low permeability, an excellent yield stress/stiffness balance and a broad extrusion processing window, with blow molding also being a possibility. In comparison to existing market grades, they offer flexibility similar to PA12, but with significantly better cold impact toughness.

Zytel® LC 7000 and Zytel® RS LC 4000 are based on a new polymer backbone, extensively modified from that used in PA612 and renewably sourced PA610. Due to their enhanced chemistry, they are also suitable for tie-layer-free adhesion to a variety of polymer classes including PA6, functionalized polyolefins and even ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH). They are thus well suited for multi-layer constructions.

According to Enrico Simonato, marketing development consultant at DuPont Performance Polymers: "The industrial hose and tube market is evolving quickly with regard to customer demands, application demands and sustainability targets to help address the huge recycling burden the industry faces. The industry is considering many different variables. The need to reduce weight, lower cost and deliver performance are compounded by operational temperature increases—something that will start to preclude the use of PA12 above 120°C. On top of this, the industry is also looking for replacement materials with previous PA12 supply chain issues in mind.”

With our Zytel® LC 7000 and Zytel® RS LC 4000 grades, we can now offer the industrial hose and tube market two engineering polymer grades that can compete with established LCPA grades such as PA11 and PA12, and cost less. These grades may be new to the industry, but they perform extremely favorably, as proven in automotive applications on the road today.

These new materials also come with the added attraction of customers being able to exploit collaborative application and processing development help from DuPont matter experts at one of its many innovation centers, where research is underway to commercialize a translucent version.